Why are there no good NHL podcasts or youtube channels?

[WillTheThrill]

SDP and Chiclets are my go to. Have been listening to both for many years.

 

[olli]

I enjoy chiclets personally but I can see why a lot of people here wouldn’t. Dropping the gloves with John Scott is pretty funny but John has horrible reactionary takes like saying Colorado wouldn’t make the playoffs after their 4 game skid to start the season. The DFO run down with Frank Seravalli and Jason Gregor is pretty good too, super underrated imo.

 

[TheOrganist]

I mean I don’t know how any hockey fan doesn’t enjoy Elliott’s 32 thoughts. Pretty much gets you up to speed on all the news and notes of the league in an intelligent manner. Like it even more now that Kyle has replaced that doofus Marek.

 

[kingsholygrail]

I'm glad The Hockey Guy doesn't yell but you can be entertaining without that. But every time he discusses games he gives absolutely no insights and just reads what happened. I'm not convinced he knows all that much about hockey. Literally anyone can do that and he's not entertaining in delivery. I like his power rankings because I like seeing the Rangers high up.

I don't think I agree with that especially on the power rankings. He also makes more in depth videos on teams and such. He does his panic index during the season. It's decent stuff. He's a little dry, but easier to listen to than most.

 

[olli]

I'm glad The Hockey Guy doesn't yell but you can be entertaining without that. But every time he discusses games he gives absolutely no insights and just reads what happened. I'm not convinced he knows all that much about hockey. Literally anyone can do that and he's not entertaining in delivery. I like his power rankings because I like seeing the Rangers high up.

Yeah I used to watch him from time to time especially the power rankings which were fun. But his daily vids on previews/reviews of games just seem like him going over stats and not actually giving his own opinion. His season previews and series previews are the same thing and he no longer even gives his predictions for where teams will finish or who will win series. I think he’s too scared of being criticized for sharing his full opinion which is kind of weird cause that’s what really generates views these days. I’ve watched him on and off since he had like 1200 subscribers and it seems like in the early days he’d share his opinion way more and as his channel got bigger he slowly shared his opinions less and less. Gotta respect the consistency he uploads videos at even in the off season which is definitely the main reason his channel has grown so much. Nobody else posts as frequently and consistently as him as far as I know.

 

[sr edler]

Doug MacLean's pretty funny (and knowledgeable/insightful) when he's on Sammy McKee's and Nick Kypreos' pod, especially the episode where he trashed modern day hockey's obsession with cap talk and contracts. Former goalie Steve Valiquette's also on this pod and said it's well-known within the business that Ullmark (while supremely talented) doesn't want to carry the full load of a real #1G.

 

[brentashton]

The ironic thing is he’s super tight with Ron McLean and sportsnet

What’s ironic about that? Ron McLean is as big a tool as Biz is. They are made for each other.

 

[HockeyVirus]

I listen to several quality ones. Overdrive is amazing but is Leaf centric a lot. Most quality ones are based in Toronto

 

[Armourboy]

Yeah I used to watch him from time to time especially the power rankings which were fun. But his daily vids on previews/reviews of games just seem like him going over stats and not actually giving his own opinion. His season previews and series previews are the same thing and he no longer even gives his predictions for where teams will finish or who will win series. I think he’s too scared of being criticized for sharing his full opinion which is kind of weird cause that’s what really generates views these days. I’ve watched him on and off since he had like 1200 subscribers and it seems like in the early days he’d share his opinion way more and as his channel got bigger he slowly shared his opinions less and less. Gotta respect the consistency he uploads videos at even in the off season which is definitely the main reason his channel has grown so much. Nobody else posts as frequently and consistently as him as far as I know.

Pretty sure he did a prediction this year.

What I like about him is that he gives stats and what happened and keeps it simple. I'm not watching every game each night so it gives me a good run down. I also don't need the opinion of some random dude that hasn't done anymore than I have in the NHL, that's what this place is for.

 

[Mallow]

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Pinholes Graham in this thread. Some nice SBNation/Jon Bois vibes from his channel and like that he does some dives into older playoff series.

 

[Ignatius]

This is what legends are made of...

 

[Svechhammer]

I honestly think the big problem with the NHL in general is that its way too often stuck in the past. You have a significant portion of the hockey community who wishes the culture of the game never grew from the Original 6 and thinks things will never get any better than it was back in the 50s or 60s, and that mindset drives a lot of the way the sport is covered. O6 teams are revered, there's an overemphasis on the unwritten rules of the game and a stress to 'play the right way' where any kind of celebration or fun is seen as somehow showing up the opponent or an embarrassment to the game. And this has created a splintering off of new hockey media that swings hard in the other direction to try and be as edgy and over the top as possible, and they come off looking like absolute clowns.

The league genuinely has some of the most entertaining personalities actually playing right now in professional sports. I do think Chiclets probably gets closest to showcasing them, but they take it a little too far.

 

[Oilgasms]

Ok boys - let me introduce you boys to the current GOAT. You want Jon Bois esque historical deep dives?

Boom here's a hour, extremely well done video in the evolution of trap. Where does he start? Not the 90's Devils. Nah, the 1915 Sens

You want to shit on teams for completely loading up and not having it pan out?

Here's a little video on that failure on the 2004 Avalanche


or just a little banger on why you should never pay a goalie huge bucks?


Plus some great vids doing deep dives on playoff series

 

[Sniper99]

Dangle is the Stephen A of hockey - an unbearable, screeching ignoramus.

I can actually tolerate Stephen A. Its Dangle I wont waste a second listening to.

 

[Master P]

The only time I've ever enjoyed hockey on a podcast is when the podcast had nothing to do with hockey.

Never thought I'd see Woolie on this site lol.

 

[pekka55]

Hockey is a very niche sport. You can't make money podcasting to a few thousand people.

I mean the official NHL youtube channel has about 2.2 million subscribers. Most clips get somewhere between 20k and 50k views. No one gives a shit about hockey. Sad, but true.

 

[Brookbank]

Seems like everything is either vanilla and boring (The Hockey Guy) or over the top clownish (SteveDangle). I listen to Locked On New York Rangers but the guy is kind of boring and while the Rangers guy is good enough I listened to his interview with the Panthers guy and he was terrible, could barely string a sentence together. Meanwhile the horrible New York Giants have some great podcasts where they breakdown film and have strong analysis. And these guys are usually fans that do these podcasts so the lack of resource argument doesn't seem to fly.

There's lots.

Hockey Psychology, Rob Talks Hockey, Eck, Jonny Hawky

 

[MMANumminen]

I like to listen Urheilucast, especially Touru&Hoffren, Kimanttia and Kaljucorner, occasinally Spitting Chicklets

 

[TruePowerSlave]

There has never been a high-quality hockey podcast. Some okay channels to be found, but nothing great available.

 

[archangel2]

Seems like everything is either vanilla and boring (The Hockey Guy) or over the top clownish (SteveDangle). I listen to Locked On New York Rangers but the guy is kind of boring and while the Rangers guy is good enough I listened to his interview with the Panthers guy and he was terrible, could barely string a sentence together. Meanwhile the horrible New York Giants have some great podcasts where they breakdown film and have strong analysis. And these guys are usually fans that do these podcasts so the lack of resource argument doesn't seem to fly.

That is your personal opinion. There lots of God pod casts for individual teams but for overall nhl pod cast? They have talk about the leafs or popular clubs to get eyes

 

[kevistar]

Some french ones that I like to listen that focus more on prospects are TSLH and Podcast La Relève

 

[Based Anime Fan]

Surprised that nobody has mentioned Pinholes Graham in this thread. Some nice SBNation/Jon Bois vibes from his channel and like that he does some dives into older playoff series.

His latest video on The Trap should be required viewing so that people recognize the difference between a good team 'using it' (NJD, MTL) and bad teams that caused the DPE (FLA, NYI, MIN).

 

[Reality Czech]

Hockey is a very niche sport. You can't make money podcasting to a few thousand people.

I mean the official NHL youtube channel has about 2.2 million subscribers. Most clips get somewhere between 20k and 50k views. No one gives a shit about hockey. Sad, but true.

I love hockey but I rarely if ever go to the NHL's YouTube page.

 

[skagittarius]

I've had the same observation after watching some great NFL content, particularly the all 22 film reviews. As others have pointed out, it's a lot more difficult to do something similar for NHL games (is bird's eye NHL video even publicly available?). But I'd pay to subscribe to a patreon coach review type show that had detailed game footage breakdown and analysis content from a knowledgeable professional that also included advanced metrics. There's still a lot of strategy in the game I'm fascinated by (breakout coverage / blueline protection, puck/point pressure vs shell shot/lane protection, etc). Seems to me there could be business case for that type of content but maybe not at the team level.